8 w's and 3 F's on Junior College Transcript

I'm wondering if anyone has successfully been accepted into law school with a messy transcript (maybe taking time off, with a lot of W's, or with some F's). My situation is 8 w's and 3 F's on my Junior college transcript. I've have now been two and half years at a State University and have a 3.9. and will graduate next semester. I don't know exactly how LSAC will calculate but if I enter the 3 F's (academically renewed but I know it won't count for LSAC) my GPA comes out to 3.55. The W's are all non-punitive but I'm wondering if even I take a year after graduate to do an internship and prepare well for the LSAT if any 2nd tier or 3rd tier law school will accept me. Did anyone recover from a bad academic record and receive admittance into a decent program?

Donít dwell on the past. It is what it is and it makes no sense trying to speculate how an admissions committee will view your application. Just focus on what you can (LSAT, personal statement, etc.) and apply when the time comes.

I had a bad background too. I was academically dismissed from the first college I went to. I took eight years off and went back to school. Applied and got into a T2, so anything is possible. You never know how schools will view your situation.

Just be prepared to explain it in your personal statement and provide a compelling reason why things have changed. Thatís all you can do.

Yes, you can still get into a T2 or 3, maybe even a non-elite T1. It really comes down to your LSAT performance and where you want to live. A high LSAT can overcome a low GPA/GPA problems. Lets say that your LSAC GPA ends up as you predict, around 3.55. With and LSAT of, say, 158 or above you'd have a good shot at plenty of T3s and T2s. With an LSAT of 160-165 you'd have a shot at some T1s.

Your specific grade trend and the fact that you failed some classes will matter the most at schools for which your numbers are borderline. In other words, if you apply to a school whose median GPA/LSAT profile is 3.5/162, you may have atough time. For that school, your numbers would be pretty average and most of the other applicants probably don't have any Fs or Ws. If, however, you apply to a school whose profile is 3.3/155, and you have a 3.55/162, I think you're in good shape. Schools desperately want to increase their GPA/LSAT profiles in order to appease the gods at USNWR. I think that a significantly higher GPA and LSAT would overcome Ws and Fs at many T3s and 2s.

If you rock the LSAT, say 170 or above, you've got a shot at some T1s. You'll have to explain your scholastic problems on your applications. Don't make lame excuses, but use the opportunity to play up your dramatic improvement. I had an average/mediocre GPA and several years between undergrad and law school. I studied like crazy, got a very good LSAT score, and still managed to obtain a 75% scholarship to my top choice. In my experience, an LSAT score which is significantly above a given school's average can work wonders.

My LSAC GPA was 0.4 lower than my actual GPA due to a similar poor performance my first year. It seemed to me that schools just looked at the LSAC GPA and didn't really focus on the actual transcript. I can't know that for sure, of course, but the T2 I graduated from just used your LGPA and LSAT to get a combined index, and then they considered other factors.

This is the one area you can really make progress on with a personal statement. Talk about the mistakes you made, how you isolated the problem and got rid of it and never made the same mistakes again. That positive trend appeals to admissions people.